Cloud Computing Quiz 4 - Cloud Servers

Server roles

Servers generally have a single purpose (e.g., web server, file server, database server)

Start, restart, stop, terminate

server actions

website visit

A client request is sent → web server processes it → sends back files/content over the network

CPU, memory, storage, and network capacity

Physical server differences (components of a server)

web server

Server that prioritizes strong network bandwidth to quickly deliver homepage content

file server

Server that prioritizes large storage capacity

machine learning model builder

Server that prioritizes powerful CPUs and lots of memory

database server

Server that prioritizes balancing CPU + memory with fast storage for high query performance

NAS (Network-Attached Storage)

A server design with low memory and high storage capacity

Virtualized servers

Can be optimized for CPU, memory, storage, or network depending on workload

Processor types

Choice of CPU vs. GPU impacts workload efficiency (e.g., ML may need GPU)

Snapshots

Copies of all data on a disk image, used for backup or cloning servers

Amazon Machine Images (AMI)

Templates that simplify building new servers

Burstable instances

AWS instance type that builds up CPU credits for handling peak usage

Alerts

Automated responses triggered by changes in performance metrics (CPU, memory, storage, network)

Low latency, expensive instances, infrastructure is competitive advantage

situations where cloud is not always the best option